August 20, 201510 yr hi, My current computer is about 5 years old now so looking to upgrade. I'll be reusing: Corsair HX-850 Power Supply Noctua NH-D14 cooler Coolermaster HAF X Case Gigabyte GTX 770 1TB HD (Just for pics, videos, docs etc) I am looking to get: CPU: i7-4790K ( which I plan on overclocking) Motherboard: ?? RAM: ?? Probably 16gb Storage: Samsung 850 Pro 128gb (for Windows) & Samsung 850 Pro 512gb (for flight sim software, scenery etc) I'll be using it for flight simming (mainly FSX, ROF, DCS) as well as general gaming and work. Any advice (especially for the motherboard and RAM) would be greatly appreciated!
August 20, 201510 yr Have you considered Skylake? 6770K? And a Nice Asus board? http://www.asus.com/us/site/motherboards/z170/ You'll need DDR4 RAM. I'm upgrading in a month or so, this is the direction I'll be going.
August 20, 201510 yr Author I was actually considering Skylake but saw reports of it being disappointing. But maybe that is going from more recent CPUs, mine is currently an i7-950. Mmm, maybe a Skylake would be best rather than a 4790K?
August 20, 201510 yr Well yes, depends what you come from, but I wouldn't say disappointing. Those that claim they're disappointed are expecting miracles I reckon. More's law is under strain now, we shouldn't expect huge increases in performance. I have to build a PC, as my son is having my present machine, but I expect a worthwhile imorovement. That's a 3770k. As Tom says at the end of the review below, "Skylake is epic!"
August 20, 201510 yr i am right in the middle of the same mess,if you are going from something that old, you are better off going with skylake,just for the extra features on the z170 chipset,the gigabyte z170 board i bought has 2 m.2 slots on the motherboard.as prices of m.2 fall its gonna be even more worth it,i had to start from scratch, long story but i had considered the 4790k but ended up buying a 6600k because the 6700k is delayed in the u.s,this will be the first i5 i have ever owned,i am matching that with 32 gigs of ddr4 2800mhz and a gtx 980ti.when the 6700k is released i plan on ebaying the 6600k and buying the 6700k.coming from your cpu and chipset, you are just so much better off going with the z170 chipset.computers outdate to fast as it is.what i understand, you have your 16 lanes for your videocard and 8 dedicated lanes on the motherboard for x4 m.2 ssd.my samsung sm951 has 2200mbps write and 1500 mbps read.hope this helps.i spent 1,850 from scratch.
August 20, 201510 yr Author Thanks guys. Well after checking prices it seems that Skylake Isn't much more expensive anyway so I'm seriously considering this now. Would 16gb RAM be ok? That would be dual channel wouldn't it? And what brands are good for RAM? Oh, forgot to ask as well, is putting Windows onto a 128gb SSD and flight sim stuff on a 512gb SSD the way to go? Or would it be best to put everything onto one SSD?
August 20, 201510 yr Thanks guys. Well after checking prices it seems that Skylake Isn't much more expensive anyway so I'm seriously considering this now. Would 16gb RAM be ok? That would be dual channel wouldn't it? And what brands are good for RAM? Oh, forgot to ask as well, is putting Windows onto a 128gb SSD and flight sim stuff on a 512gb SSD the way to go? Or would it be best to put everything onto one SSD? It depends on your sim of choice. If you're going with FSX, then 8 gig should be good enough. If you choose X-Plane 64, then more ram and a good video card like the gtx 970 will yield better results. I'm waiting for the FSX benchmarks before I buy anything. My preferred platform is FSX and CPU/RAM performance is what is important to me. I hope that eventually we can OC a Skylake to 5gz on air. This + faster DDR4 ram will make it a worthy upgrade. BTW: Your choice of drives will work well with the new OS. MSFS
August 20, 201510 yr a 250 gb m.2 on newegg is 99 bucks, but if you already have the 128gb that would be fine as well.i used 120 boot drive for 2 years and changed to a 250 gb m.2 boot drive.also i used 2 512 gb ssd's for fsxa nd p3d.16 gigs is plenty also.i have been also told the 6600k i bought is plenty for gaming.i will be buying the 6700k because i render videos for youtube and thats the only reason i bought 32 gigs of ram.i bought the 980ti because i already had a 4k monitor.hope this helps.my ram choice brand was g.skill only because it performs very well.i chose a gigabyte z170X gaming 7.i had issues with my last system with asus.
August 21, 201510 yr Author Excuse my ignorance, but what is the m.2? Is that a newer type to the Samsung 850 pro?
August 21, 201510 yr Hutch, it's a different format, instead of being PCI-E or SATA. Heres a link to learn all about it:)http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/understanding-m-2-the-interface-that-will-speed-up-your-next-ssd/ I'm using one (as a replacement for SATA ssd) and real world speeds seem exactly the same to me.
August 21, 201510 yr Most SSD's over the past year or so have actually been too fast for the bus connected too. 6gbs SATA 111 is outdated. Enter M.2... it speeds up storage with PCIe lanes. It can also use other busses. Limited capacity and expensive at the moment though. The new Asus Skylake board, the Asus Z170 Deluxe, has Duel 32Gbit/ultra fast M.2 x4: On-board and PCIe add-in card. Do we really need one for everyday use? No, not really, I reckon not. SSD is more than adequate I'd say.
August 22, 201510 yr Most SSD's over the past year or so have actually been too fast for the bus connected too. 6gbs SATA 111 is outdated. Enter M.2... it speeds up storage with PCIe lanes. It can also use other busses. Limited capacity and expensive at the moment though. The new Asus Skylake board, the Asus Z170 Deluxe, has Duel 32Gbit/ultra fast M.2 x4: On-board and PCIe add-in card. Do we really need one for everyday use? No, not really, I reckon not. SSD is more than adequate I'd say. Actually not that expensive - I can get a 500GB M2 SSD for $280 aud, about the same price as a similar sized standard SSD. Of course, there are faster and far more expensive options:)
August 22, 201510 yr I didn't realise the price had dropped that much, not bad at all. Is that a quality make though? How fast would that be compared to a similar priced SSD?
August 23, 201510 yr Author Thanks for the advice so far. After doing some research I'm thinking of going for: CPU: I7-6700K MB: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws V F4-3200C16D-16GVK 16gb (2x8gb) DDR4 Samsung 850 EVO M.2 250gb SSD (for OS) Samsung 850 EVO M.2 500gb SSD (for flight sims, scenery etc) Does this look ok?
August 23, 201510 yr I just built a new computer for FSX, thought of sharing with you my experience. Might help! Specs CPU: 4790K Overclocked to 4.7 comfortably with 1.25v (highest core temp was 95 degrees). I decided to stop and not push it beyond that. Cooling: Corsair h100i GTX Motherboard: Asus Maximus hero VII Ram: HyperX Beast 16GB @2400 PSU: Corsair AX 1200i x2 SSD Samsung 850 256 GB each (1 for Windows 7 and 1 for FSX) x2 HDD 7200 2TB each To be honest, it's a nice built and I like it. I installed Orbx, some airports I have, GEX Middle east and Africa, UTX, REX, EZCA, GSX and others that I probably don't remember. With PMDG 777300ER VC, I get around 25 to 30 FPS and while in the air I can get upto 60 FPS (With full FSX-SE settings max except for traffic) I think I can tweak it more to get at least 40 FPS on ground! ooh and the GPU is Nvidia Titan X
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